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Fort Redlight
Fort Redlight is the headquarters of the Knights of the Blood Red Light. It is a relatively small stone fortress that also happens to house various facilities for use by the knights, their younglings and mercenaries hired by the order: stables, barracks/dormitory, training fields, jousting fields, a chapel, a library and a sort of "school" for the underage would-be-knights. The fort's distance from Grandfolk is 12.8 kilometres, which is basically a two-hour ride on horseback, or a little bit more than a roughly three hours walk on foot. One of the biggest strengths of Fort Redlight is the fact that a small number of men can hold it against overwhelming superiority of numbers for a long time. History What is now Fortress Redlight was first built up some time around 70 AEKE, after King Cuichelm I of Etrand granted the Knights of the Golden Light permission to build their wooden motte-and-bailey castle on the area. This was ratified by King Hengist I of Etrand, who even produced an official document stating that the area of the fortress belongs to the order, but the land's ownership will fall back to the King should the order cease to exist. Around 90 AEKE, the wooden motte-and-bailey was partially destroyed by a fire, but the whole castle was rebuilt into a stone motte-and-bailey. After the destruction of the Order of the Golden Light in 104 AEKE, the old castle was abandoned, left ownerless, even though it legally became the property of the King of Etrand. The old ruins got covered with an artificial forest planted by travellers and soon became the holdout for random scoundrels. When the Order of the Blood Red Light came into existence in 252, the founders of the orders bought the land that used to contain the former castle. After the First Demonic Invasion came to an end in 253, the infant order cleaned out the land, chasing away all the bandits, clearing away the ruins, deforesting, building a new fortress. Even though the building of the relatively small fortress was going on a fast paste, it was expected that the construction would take at least 15 years. By 257, news of the Second Demonic Invasion hit everyone, causing a massive panic. Fearing another demonic attack, the building of the fort was rushed and completed within just half a year after 257 - the end result was a fort-like structure that could take in some refugees from Grandfolk - not many - and was ultimately weak. During the Second Demonic Invasion, the castle - overcrowded with refugees from Grandfolk - was besieged three times, each times holding out miraculously, despite the obvious flaws in the design and weaknesses originating from the rushed construction. During the Hulran Invasion of Etrand, the castle was besieged and heavily damaged, but the Hulrans lifted the siege in order to concentrate on the siege of Grandfolk itself, fearing that splitting their forces would give the Etrandish an advantage. After the war between Etrand and Hulra ended in 274 AEKE with an Etrandish victory, the castle was expanded. By 310, the fortress had its chapel and catacombs. By ~350, the barracks were expanded into an all-out dormitory that had more comforts than before. The barracks even had a cafeteria of sorts, attended by maids. By 464, it was documented that the facilities to educate the younglings were already in place, and they no longer had to conduct education in separate areas outside the fortress. The last dedicated addition, the library, was built in 513 - previously, books were stored in the catacombs, in the chapel, in the "school". In 620, there was a major expansion on the fortifications, a few redesigns to render the structure more resilient to attackers. During the reign of King Bourn I of Etrand, the knights gained ownership of a little bit more land around the castle and gained permission to build a moat - the drawbridge came naturally after that. During the 718 Succession Crisis, the order remained neutral, as such, the fort remained unmolested. The latest addition to the fort is murder holes. Category:Fortresses